Description

The Tank, Combat, Full Tracked, 105-mm Gun M1, or just M1 Abrams, is a Rank VI American medium tank
with a battle rating of 10.0 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.77 "Advancing Storm".

In game, the M1 Abrams is a fairly quick main battle tank. It accelerates quickly, and will hold a speed of 32 miles an hour over rough terrain. On city maps or paved surfaces, an M1 Abrams can easily reach its top speed of 45 miles an hour, thanks to its monstrously powerful turbine engine. With three speeds in reverse, it is also capable of an impressive 25 miles an hour to back away from troublesome situations.

As powerful as the motor may be, the M1 Abrams has a slow to respond, and relatively slow traverse rate for its neutral steering. In some circumstances, it may be more beneficial to back away before turning around, as waiting for the neutral steering to turn 180 degrees is lengthy.

The M1 Abrams also suffers from a raised engine deck- As such, its capacity for “over the shoulder” shots and shots directly over the rear is very limited, because the engine deck prevents lowering the cannon.

Usage in battles

If you must advance, advance facing forward after checking for enemies. As long as your armour faces the enemy, you have relative safety. When defending, go hull-down. Make sure there are places to retreat to if needed, and take advantage of the reverse speed and smoke grenades to run from ATGMs. Use the rangefinder when you can, but if the target is moving, you will probably miss. Try to guess based on experience if it comes to it.

The Abrams main strength its its extreme mobility, even by MBT standards. However, the price comes in protection; the Abrams is quite vulnerable, and struggles to deflect incoming shells with anything except its turret cheeks. Additionally, The M1 has somewhat sub-par penetration even with its best shell. Because of these factors, it is recommended that you do not use this tank as a front line brawler. Instead, use your speed to quickly appear from angles your opponents are not expecting you to come from. This can take the form of flanking in order to get side shots, Rushing at the start of the game to take an advantageous position, or getting to choke points before the enemy does, in order to be ready to knock them out. Essentially, This tank should be played much like the M18 Hellcat at Rank III, though unlike the Hellcat it is not impossible for your armour to help you occasionally.

A useful thing to note when playing the Abrams, and most MBTs in general, is that if your opponent shows any side armour, you can penetrate them almost every time. if someone is coming towards you even at a slight angle, aim for the the front drive wheel on their tracks. Your shell will be able to penetrate into the tank and likely one shot kill them. It is recommended to use APFSDS as the main loadout, as the HEAT-FS ammunition starts coming against tanks with armour types specifically designed to resist it.

In terms of threats:

Most tanks at its Battle rating, due to the relatively poor armour.

Type 90 and AMX-40, as their incredibly powerful shots can penetrate you anywhere, at any angle, at almost any distance.

The T-80B, because of its strong armament and very strong armour. it can be penetrated through its lower front plate, the drivers viewport below the gun, and just to the side or below the gun. If a T80B shows any of its side, you can penetrate it there.

Pros and cons

Pros:

Very good mobility for its weight.

Good chemical protection from composite armour.

Turret also has composite armour on the side.

Turns very fast, even in neutral steering.

Internal armour plating helps with increasing the crew survivability.

Very accurate main gun with very good gun stabilizers and good rate of fire.

The three shells under the gun do NOT have blowout panels, if detonated you will die.

No composite armour on the upper glacis plate and in the rear of the turret, so remaining on level terrain is priority.

Low APFSDS penetration compared to Challenger 1 and T-64B.

Inadequate stock ammo loadout; Both the M735 and M456 shells are no longer effective at top rank.

Weakest composite armour compared to Challenger and T-64B.

Losing some crew members will prevent you from firing some of your smoke grenades.

The armour's chemical resistance against HEAT and such is not relevant against contemporary enemies usually equipped with APFSDS.

History

Once the unsuccessful joint German-American MBT-70 project had been shut down in 1971, the Congress redistributed funds to the further development of the XM815 project, later known as the XM1 Abrams. The development of the XM1 Abrams was a competition between two designs of the Chrysler and General Motors companies, respectively. Early July 1973 marks an important date for the project after representatives of both companies travelled to Great Britain to witness the development of the new composite armor, named Burlington. Impressed by what they saw, both companies decided to reevaluate and optimize their designs’ armor layout to increase its effectiveness, with General Motors changing the front shape of the turret to a sloped surface, whilst Chrysler retained its vertical design. By 1976, the XM1 prototypes were being readied for testing, with the finishing touch being the installation of the M68 cannon.. Testing of both prototypes took place in the presence of the new German Leopard 2 tank, which was shipped to the U.S. for comparison purposes. Once testing was concluded and the results evaluated, the turbine-powered Chrysler design was proclaimed the winner of the competition and thus the Chrysler design would soon enter production as the M1 Abrams.

The M1 entered production in 1979, with the first production version M1 leaving the factory floor in February 1980. Production of the M1 continued until 1985, with an improved M1IP version being produced briefly between 1984 -1986. By 1985, several thousands of M1s had already been manufactured and put into service. In August 1985 however, the M1 was outfitted with the licence-built version of the Rheinmetall 120mm gun, as found on the Leopard 2 tank and subsequently entered production as the M1A1 Abrams. Following this modification, earlier M1 units would progressively be upgraded to M1A1 standard, but this is a story for another devblog in the future. The M1 Abrams saw the most active service with US forces primarily in operations in the Middle East, but known operators also include Australia, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and others. Nonetheless, the American M1 Abrams is one of the most successful and widely fielded modern-day MBTs in use anywhere in the world, and rightfully deserves its iconic status alongside other American legends such as the M4 Sherman and M60 Patton, to name but a few. The fact that the M1 Abrams is still being manufactured and used today, almost four decades after its introduction, serves as a testimony to that statement.